Tuesday, July 30, 2013

I knew I was going to
Worlds, but for a long time I didn't book the trip. Eventually I decided to book the trip, but then something tragic happened - my big brother got hit by a car. So what does my big brother got to do with anything? Well, he should have been the Finnish translator, but due to the accident he can't go to Worlds at all! On such a short notice it was impossible to find another translator, so I had to make a big decision. I had to step down from the player position and step up the translator's spot. I would have loved to play in the Worlds this year, because this will probably be my last Worlds, but this was the right thing to do since there was no one else for the spot and I can't really go regretting the decision now. It will be a different experience for sure, but I'm sure it will be fun nonetheless!

Anyways, even though I will be watching the Worlds Championships from the sidelines this year (which is really heart-breaking for me as I would have loved to play), it doesn't stop me today looking at what to expect at Worlds. Decks, players, Japanese
decks etc.

And remember, even though I will be in the sidelines, I will try to update interesting things from Worlds on Twitter and Facebook
in the Worlds after each round, so remember to follow me there, if you want to
know up-to-date things about the tournaments.

Monday, July 29, 2013

I was supposed to do a Worlds-entry today, but due to the changed
circumstances, I had to move it for Wednesday. Anyways, today I have two
important things - the winners of the last Tropical Beach PTCGO codes and a
shout out for a great new Pokémon TCG blog.

Let’s start with the correct answer to the last question and who are the
winners. The correct answer to the question: Who do I consider as the best
player in the game is…. Sami Sekkoum!
Not the most surprising choice, but not the most obvious choice either. He is
the most consistent player in the Worlds and National Championships history and
that’s a reason enough for me. Anyways, the winners of the last PTCGO Tropical
Beach codes are:
- Christina Pendergrast-
Connor McClure

Then, to the more important thing today! Steffen Eriksen from Denmark has
established a new Pokémon TCG blog, which has a very interesting approach on
writing and I really love the concept and hope it will become hugely successful.
I will let Steffen introduce the blog and idea to you.

Hi everyone!

My name is Steffen Eriksen and I have been a Pokémon player for quite some
time. Recently I got the idea to start a new blog with inspiration from The
Deck Out. My blog will be named Pokedemia and will, as the name indicates, have
a more academic focus on Pokémon TCG. To my knowledge there is yet no site
which does that and I think that the Pokémon community can benefit from having
a site which takes a more academic approach. The subjects which will be included
on the blog will be: Mathematic, Economics, Econometrics, Statistics, Marketing
and much more. As a special feature of the blog, I welcome people to write in
with articles they wish to publish on the blog. For more information about me
and how the blog is going to work visit: www.pokedemia.com
I hope that you all will enjoy reading my blog and a special thanks to Esa for
letting me advertise my new blog here!

Steffen Eriksen

Be sure to check Pokedemia out! I love the more mature approach to Pokémon TCG
as the game’s player base has become a lot older and I believe I may very well
to write to Pokedemia in the near future as well! I hope that the site will get
an explosive start with great articles.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

I have planned a few competitions for the Tropical Beaches and they are pretty simple. I give you a question and you answer it on Facebook (I presume almost everyone has a Facebook nowadays). However, if you don't, just e-mail me your answer to: thedeckout@gmail.com.

I hope most of you put your answers to Facebook,
where I have asked the question, so that my e-mail box won't be filled
with e-mails and that I know who I am giving the codes to. Remembr to share the contest with your friends as well, so they have a chance to win 4 Tropical Beaches as well!. I will choose
the winner(s) among the people who answered correctly to my question.

Monday, July 22, 2013

I was going to make another PTCGO giveaway contest today, but then changed my mind. After all, I haven't discussed the upcoming rotation at all in my blog yet!

If you didn't yet know, it’s official now and it has been for a while, but
due to my hectic life in the summer I am bit late to analyze the changes. The next format
will be Next Destinies-on! And what will that mean for the game and for the
upcoming format? That’s what I am here today to discuss. What is even more interesting
is the fact that they released the possible “alternative format” alongside the “modified”
format starting late 2014. What kind of impact that will have to the game? That
will be very interesting to see. If you haven’t yet seen the official
announcement, check it out here: http://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-news/op_2014_format_rotation-2013-07-16/

Anyways, today I’ll be discussing, which cards will be out of the game in the next
format and what it means for some decks. I’ll also take a look at the cards
that are more viable now that certain cards have been rotated out. I might have
missed the rotation of some cards, so feel free to comment if you notice
anything lacking in my analysis!

Remember that the rotation takes place AFTER Worlds, so Worlds’ will be still
played with the BW-on format.

Oh and one more thing. The Top Cut Invitational that I had last year priviledge to attend to is organized this year again. This time, The Top Cut needs your vote in order to decide the remaining contestant of the tournament! I voted for Sami Sekkoum, who is your vote? If you haven't yet voted, you can vote here: http://thetopcut.net/2013/07/20/vote-for-the-last-member-of-the-top-cut-invitational/ The tournament is just something very special and I encourage everyone to follow it!

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

I have planned a few competitions for the Tropical Beaches and they are pretty simple. I give you a

Beedrill won Worlds.

question and you answer it on Facebook (I presume almost everyone has a Facebook nowadays). However, if you don't, just e-mail me your answer to: thedeckout@gmail.com.

I hope most of you put your answers to Facebook,
where I have asked the question, so that my e-mail box won't be filled
with e-mails and that I know who I am giving the codes to. Remembr to share the contest with your friends as well, so they have a chance to win 4 Tropical Beaches as well! I will choose
the winner(s) among the people who answered correctly to my question.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

This time the contest was even more interesting than last time! At
first, I thought that everyone would just say Zelda, but then some people
remembered the Ace Attorney picture in Miska camp and eventually almost
everyone jumped on the Ace Attorney bandwagon. Even though I love Zelda and Ace
Attorney, the correct answer is neither of them.

It seems that people have good, but short memory! The hint was that there was a
reference in my blog to the game series every three months. A lot of people
seemed to dismiss the hint completely.But the question is, what happens every three months? A new set is
released! So, a new “Impact Crater” –entry is made every three months as well.
This leads us to the correct answer, which is… Metroid! And more precisely
Metroid Prime-series. You can find the final boss of the Metroid Prime 1 from the Impact Crater
and if you Google search e.g. “Impact Crater Nintendo”, you can find Metroid references
all around the search hits. However, I was positively surprised to see that
some people remembered that Impact Crater-entries are released every three
months and could connect it with Metroid Prime. Great job!

More right answers came with e-mail this time and the lucky winners of PTCGOTropical Beach codes are:

David Zou
Juho Hautala
Melissa Parker (e-mail)
Arren Mallot (e-mail)

It seems that differing from the masses has been a key to victory so far.
Tomorrow, a new contest will take place once again and I believe it’s the easiest
question so far. So, will the masses be right tomorrow? Stay tuned on Facebook
and Twitter to find out!

Sunday, July 14, 2013

I have planned a few competitions for the Tropical Beaches and they are pretty simple. I give you a question and you answer it on Facebook (I presume almost everyone has a Facebook nowadays). However, if you don't, just e-mail me your answer to: thedeckout@gmail.com.

I hope most of you put your answers to Facebook,
where I have asked the question, so that my e-mail box won't be filled
with e-mails and that I know who I am giving the codes to. Remembr to share the contest with your friends as well, so they have a chance to win 4 Tropical Beaches as well!I will choose
the winner(s) among the people who answered correctly to my question.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

I have planned a few competitions for the PTCGO Tropical Beaches and they are pretty simple. I give you a question and you answer it on Facebook (I presume almost everyone has a Facebook nowadays). However, if you don't, just e-mail me your answer to: thedeckout@gmail.com.

I hope most of you put your answers to Facebook, where I have asked the question, so that my e-mail box won't be filled with e-mails and that I know who I am giving the codes to. Remember to share the contest with your friends as well, so they have a chance to win 4 Tropical Beaches as well! I will choose the winner(s) among the people who answered correctly to my question.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

As Worlds will be soon and it’s difficult to decide whether to discuss Worlds format
or the future

Eeveelutions tend to break the format

format,I decided to make a compromise and do another history entry!
The last one was a bit controversial and the general tone of the article was
negative. This time, the story is pretty much the opposite. Almost a
Cinderella-like story. Also, did you know that the new Pokémon TCG season started yesterday! If you don't believe me, just check your Pokémon.com account!

But before we get going, it’s good to remind you that it’s no good reading
this, if you haven’t read the previous parts of my history. You can find the
previous parts here:

- 2004
- 2005
- 2006
- 2007
Anyways, it’s always good to make a quick recap of where am I now. It’s autumn
of 2007. The last two seasons have been highly disappointing for me Pokémon
TCG-wise as first I failed at Worlds in 2006 and the 2007 was full of negative
feelings and experiences. HOWEVER, even though the years had been failures for
me personally as a player, they were remarkable years for me as a deck builder,
because my builds had won Worlds Championships two years in a row! Finland was
able to produce World Champions two years in a row, which I think no one
expected. All the eyes of Finnish players were on me, as almost everyone
awaited me to be the 3rd Finnish World Champion. However, as I had
lost a bit of my confidence and interest in Pokémon TCG, because of the failure
of my past two seasons, I didn’t expect anything from myself. Especially since
I didn’t feel comfortable with the format. How so? Let’s get going to find out!

Monday, July 8, 2013

The U.S. Nationals are finally behind us! And the only
thing left is the Worlds Championships - the most important tournament of the
season for me and a lot of non-U.S players. However, before I make a Worlds
Championships entry later on in this month, it’s time to look back to the
results of the U.S. Nationals winning decks, and why these decks ended up
winning each age group.

I’ll analyze each age group, but of course I will concentrate mostly on
Masters, because that’s the only age group I could find a lot of good information from! We
already know the top8 of the Masters division giving us a good picture of what
really did well. I’ll also do some a not-so-rough draft of the Masters’ winning
deck, which I believe won’t be too many cards off. I hope you enjoy!

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Hello
everyone!
As you know if you follow me on social media, a few days ago I received Tropical Beach codes for
PTCGO as many other Worlds 2011 and 2012 attendees. Soon I realized that as I don’t play PTCGO at all, they are just a bunch
of useless codes for me. I could sell them for 20-30$/each, but I would really
like to reward my fans instead of making money with them. That’s why I will
posting competitions to my blog and to social media where I give 1-2 codes at a time, with which you can use to claim 4 Tropical
Beaches in PTCGO. To be amongst the first to know when a new Tropical Beach code competition is
available in my blog, follow me on:

Twitter or Facebook
The competitions are simple. I ask questions about my Pokémon TCG career, me or my blog and I will reward 1-2 people who answered correctly. I will post the question of the day to Facebook, where I hope you answer the question, because that's teh only way I can recognize who answered correctly. If you don't have Facebook, e-mail me the answer to: thedeckout@gmail.com. I hope you will write on Facebook, because otherwise my e-mail will be filled with e-mails before I have time to say Pikachu.

So stay tuned in social media! Also, there may be codes hidden somewhere inside my new blog texts as well! So, read every entry carefully! The competitions will start somewhere next week after the U.S. Nationals, so everyone can attend.

Anyways, this will happen somewhere next week and before that I’ll try to get
some more additional Tropical Beaches from other Finnish players as well to share with, so I
hope I can give away a LOT of Tropical Beaches for free. I hope that you will
take the code only if you sincerely need it for playing and that you don’t take
it and sell it just to make money and that you only claim one code (since you get 4 Beaches with one code). It would defeat the whole purpose of me
giving these away for free. Thank you.

One more thing! I would like to give one Tropical Beach right here, right now.
This Tropical Beach goes to a person, who is probably the most active commenter
in my blog and thus I want to recognize the time he spends on reading and commenting on my blog. Alex
Hill! E-mail me to: thedeckout@gmail.com
to claim your PTCGO Tropical Beach if you need one. If you don’t, just comment
on the comments section and I’ll pass it on to someone else.

Thanks for being the best fans a blog can get!

Also, you should give HUGE props for the following people who gave me their Tropical Beach codes, so I can give you more of them:

- Matius Hurskainen- Miska Saari

At the moment I already have 14 codes to share with you guys!

Oh and good luck to everyone attending the U.S. Nationals this weekend!

Monday, July 1, 2013

Hello
everyone!As you may know (or not know), the Miska Camp took
place last weekend. Miska Camp is an annual

An epic showdown between me and Kumis

meeting of Finnish players, where
the players going to Worlds test for Worlds’ decks and strategies. However,
over time it has developed to be much more than just preparing Pokémon TCG decks
for Worlds Championships. Anyways, just like last year, I will do a picture-entry
of this year’s Miska Camp.

I hope you enjoy the pictures! It sure was a blast again this year even though
the Worlds preparatios… Well, there were less them than I had expected, but I sure
had a lot of fun nonetheless! You can find the pictures from the entry below
this.
Remember to click the pictures to enlarge them.